Waymo said goodbye to the prototype of an autonomous vehicle Firefly

Waymo Company, part of the Alphabet Holding, has announced the completion of a project to further develop the prototype of an autonomous vehicle without a steering wheel Firefly, launched by Google in 2014.

Leaders Waymo team leading industrial designer Yudzhung An (YooJung Ahn) and senior systems engineer Jaime Wade (Jaime Waydo), said in an official company blog that it was time to part with pretty tiny robomobilem and focus instead on the integration of autonomous driving technology other models of cars such as minivans Chrysler Pacifica, which Waymo put on the road at the beginning of this year.

” By focusing on mass production vehicles such as minivan Pacifica, we can bring a fully self-managing technology to more people, and faster ” – write Waymo leading experts. They also reported that the transition to mass vehicles opens up more opportunities for testing, because Firefly had a top speed of only 25 miles/H.

This step once again confirms that Waymo completely abandons the idea of ​​producing its own cars and compete with automakers, instead focusing on cooperation and development of technologies with any interested car companies.

Some of Firefly prototypes will be presented in museums, including the Computer History Museum in his native city of Google in Mountain View (California).